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Source: Lexus Nexis Academic Universe Copyright 2000 Associated Press AP Worldstream February 16, 2000; Wednesday 8:38 AM Eastern Time SECTION: International news DISTRIBUTION: Middle East; England; Europe; Britian; Scandinavia; Asia LENGTH: 300 words HEADLINE: U.N. Secretary General says Iraq program will go on unchanged With Indonesia-UN DATELINE: JAKARTA, Indonesia BODY: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that there would be no change to the world body's approach to Iraq, despite claims by top U.N. officials that civilians are suffering due to it. Hans Von Sponeck, the head of the U.N.'s mission in Iraq, was one of two top officials to resign in the past few days in protest over the U.N.'s program, saying Iraqi civilians will continue to suffer unless the world body changes its ways. But Annan, who is in Jakarta on the final leg of a tour of Southeast Asia, said there would be no change to the program, in which sanctions are imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. ''I will just have to appoint a new director,'' he told reporters. ''We are continually trying to work to make it as effective as possible, and I think the program will go forward.'' Speaking on Tuesday, von Sponeck said the new Iraq policy was flawed and did not make a clear distinction between civilian needs and disarmament obligations. Following von Sponeck's example, Jutta Burghardt, the head of the U.N. World Food Program in Iraq, resigned Tuesday. European diplomats in Baghdad said she was also protesting the U.N. sanctions. The resignations come as the U.N. Security Council is striving to persuade Iraq to accept its December resolution that will partially suspend sanctions in return for full cooperation with a new weapons inspection commission. The sanctions can only be permanently lifted if U.N. arms inspectors can verify that Iraq's long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction are completely dismantled. Von Sponeck said the U.N. oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food and other essential items, was barely meeting what he called the ''survival requirements'' for Iraq's 22 million people. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: February 16, 2000 ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi